If you live in the Netherlands, Germany is very close. I went for a day Cologne. Jump on the autobahn, set your cruisecontrol on 200+ km p/u (125+mph) ;-) and enjoi the rush.. Yup you can also test your max of your car.

After 2 hour I was in the center

RR = Former Englisch but now German

Cologne's famous church.

big icecream upside down. New kind of church?

It was hard to get a coffee..Football supporters and the police "blocked" the road.. ;-)Yup it felt good to be back in germany...

Anyway.. snacks on every cornerBelow the "Berliner"

Found in the store some strange drinks...Never knew that Clint was into the booz that much ..

With waves up to triple overhead 'Supertubos' finally showed that it deserves it's names as the European Pipeline. Round 3 and the quarters are completed with a few perfect 10's and the wave off the day for Parko. Sadly, wild card Owen Wright burst his eardrum and won't be able to compete in the semi final. This means Mick is already in the final and with Parko in the other semi, we could be up for an interesting clash for the world title....

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Friday, October 23, 2009

The first round of the Rip Curl Pro Search in Peniche is completed. For the European surfers the first round has not been a big succes. With Jeremy Flores injured and local hero Tiago Pires loosing in the first round.

The Portuguese crowd only had one reason for cheering, Marlon Lipke. Although he surfs for Germany, he is born and raised in Portugal.

Also, the conditions haven't really been close to epic yet. Hopefully the forecast for Tuesday will come through....

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

The swell in Portugal has hit the Rip Curl Pro Search in Peniche. The waves werfe a solid 15ft, but with an onshore wind "Supertubos" was unsurfable. Supposedly, it's the biggest swell hitting the Portuguese coast in ten years.

They noticed at the contest site. The VIP room totally destroyed!!!!

Mick Fanning and Taylor knox went for some tow-surfing on the north side of the peninsula.

Hopefully the wind will be a bit more favorable the next days, so we can see them rip "Supertubos"!!

Ever since I had a license to drive my matchbox cars on the kitchen floor, I’ve liked my cars low. I think it must’ve come from leaning on the little die-casts too hard. As an adult, I still like them low. Take this Karmann Ghia. This car doesn’t have fanciest wheels or the craziest paint job...it’s just low. Yet this car is still cool as hell.

(lifted maui ghia ;-)

People who own big trucks are typically the first to say that,"lowriders are for guys who cant get it up." To them I say "lifted trucks are for guys who cant get layed." Seriously though, I don’t see why the whole high/low issue has to be so polarized, but we all have our desired vehicle ride heights. My preference is trucks high, cars low.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

We posted some GoPro movies from Glenn here already. Showing the possibilities of the little waterproof camera. Yesterday I saw some stills from a movie from Torben Sonntag shot on Maui. The camera view gives us an awesome perspective.

These, as well as Glenn's movies, are shot with a standard GoPro wide camera. From November on, the High Definition version will be available. This new GoPro HD camera will give you higher resolution footage and a slow motion option. You can see the possibilties here.

As I already said in a previous post, I have ordered one and I can't wait till it gets here. I haven't really seen the HD version promoted in Holland yet, but I know zuidwest6.nl is going to sell them, together with a few proven mounting options for windsurfing.

Monday, October 19, 2009

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Tomorrow the Rip Curl Pro Search kicks off. This year the event will take place in Peniche, Portugal. I always try to follow the European ASP Worldtour events, because I know the beaches of the southwest of France and around Mundaka quite well. And that makes it more fun. But this year we have a third European event, the Rip Curl Pro Search in Peniche. And for me this is extra special. I have spend a lot of summers with my girlfriend in Peniche and it's one of my favorite places with a lot of good memories. It's a small fishermen village, with probably the best boulevard for eating fresh grilled fish for a very, very reasonable price.

I have surfed quite a lot in Peniche, but in summer the waves usually only break on the north side of the peninsula. A nice beach break, but nothing compared to the beach breaks on the south side of the peninsula. That's where the infamous spot called 'Supertubos' is. I have only seen it with hip high waves, but there are some rare images on the internet explaining how it got its name.

The MagicSeaWeed forecast for the coming week could mean epic conditions in Peniche. The swell could rise up to over 6 meters, and if the wind stays in northern directions, the waves could be super clean. Therefore, I will definitely be following the event closely....

Saturday, October 17, 2009

The forecast was good, really good. On wednesday I called David and we realised this was a day we couldn't miss. The wind would be straight from the north and at least 25 knots. The waves would build up during the day. This kind of forecast could mean awesome conditions at IJmuiden. The wind would be side-offshore and with some swell, it could mean clean lines, which are rare along the dutch coast.

We arrived at 10:30am. Looked over the dunes. It was still quite flat, but there was enough wind. We rigged our 4.7 sails and went out. Walking over the beach we allready noticed the wind had picked up. But let's try it anyway. Fully overpowered we went for it. The waves were small where we entered the water, but they were clean. I headed for one full speed and took off. It felt like I was in the air forever. And although this was the perfect recipe for insane jumping, we noticed that our sails were way too big for some decent waveriding. So after 15 minutes we decided to change our sails to 4.2.In the beginning the conditions were ridiculously good for dutch standards. A little more downwind the waves were clean, up to shoulder height and long enough to do up to 5 or 6 bottomturns. The 30 - 45 knots of wind still made jumping lots of fun as well ;-)

During the afternoon the waves, but also the crowds picked up. It got quite choppy. A little downwind from the main crowds it was still good enough to have loads of fun. Every now and then we would go way out into the big swell behind the pier. And although the swell doesn't break like the waves near the beach, they sometimes did break. With one and a half time mast high, this was quite a thrill ;-P

At 5:30pm we called it a day. We had an awesome day sailing with lots of friends showing up during the day. After eating some fries and a hamburger in the harbour, we went for our trip back home. Although we both had to go in different directions, due to traffic it took us about twice as long as normal to get home. But after a day like this nothing can ruin the smile on your face.

Because we had too much fun sailing, we didn't take any pictures. But luckily Torben, Axel and JePeVePe took some pictures. Click on the pictures to see some more.

In a few weeks we will get a GoPro HD camera. This will finally solve our problem of taking footage, when everyone wants to stay sailing. Also, it will finally give us some footage of the conditions way out in the big swells.

I received a nice T-shirt from Steve. Altamont did a collab with the photographer Bill Owens. They printed some of of his classic pics on T-shirts.The coincidence is: brand of the shirt is Altamont, pictures that were used are photo's from the Altamont free festifal (1969) in californiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altamont_Free_Concert

Maybe I got too much that look of a hippie ;-) Vw's, beanie and beard... and I like also the music from that time period.so today I went for a fresh shave...